LOS ANGELES - A homeless man died after being doused with gasoline and set on fire on a street where he had lived for many years and was a familiar face to residents of Koreatown, police and local merchants said Friday.

Police were called to Third Street west of downtown Thursday evening and found the man, who was pronounced dead at a hospital.

A man in his 20s was seen throwing gasoline on the man, chasing him, throwing more on him and running from the scene, said Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz. Scorch marks stained a wall Friday where the man was burned.

"To murder somebody who's probably suffering from mental illness issues and not bothering anyone " just a poor wretch on the street " you've got to be a soulless nitwit to do something like this," he said.

I was homeless for a brief period as a teenager, and am appalled by the way many people in society view them. Assaults on the homeless like this really rub me the wrong way. And the teenage fad of harassing and attacking homeless people is something I reserve a special disgust for.

"To murder somebody who's probably suffering from mental illness issues and not bothering anyone " just a poor wretch on the street " you've got to be a soulless nitwit to do something like this," he said.

... or some sort of twisted creep, more like it! What a hero: targeting a harmless, vulnerable person in this way! Just disgusting.

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OmSigDAVID

1

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Mon 13 Oct, 2008 02:07 am

@dlowan,

I thought I read somewhere that u have professional experience
as a psychologist; if that is accurate,
do u have any tentative diagnostic suspicions qua the perpetrator ?